Part 1 of 2
‘MY hat!’ Cyril remarked. ‘I never thought about its being a PERSIAN carpet.’
Yet it was now plain that it was so, for the beautiful objects which it had brought back were cats — Persian cats, grey Persian cats, and there were, as I have said, 199 of them, and they were sitting on the carpet as close as they could get to each other. But the moment the children entered the room the cats rose and stretched, and spread and overflowed from the carpet to the floor, and in an instant the floor was a sea of moving, mewing pussishness.
‘I imagine that they are hungry,’ said the Phoenix. ‘Why not send the carpet to get food for them?’. So it was written that the carpet should bring food for 199 Persian cats, and the paper was pinned to the carpet as before. The carpet seemed to gather itself together, and the cats dropped off it, as raindrops do from your mackintosh when you shake it. And the carpet disappeared.
Précis
Four children send a magic Persian carpet back to its homeland to bring back treasures, leaving the choice to the carpet. The carpet returns bearing a hundred and ninety-nine cats, and the children’s friend, the fabulous Phoenix, thoughfully suggests they send it back for some cat food. (47 / 60 words)
Part Two
THE cats mewed and mewed and twisted their Persian forms in and out and unfolded their Persian tails, and the children and the Phoenix huddled together on the table.
The Phoenix, Robert noticed suddenly, was trembling.
‘So many cats,’ it said, ‘and they might not know I was the Phoenix. These accidents happen so quickly. It quite un-mans me.’
This was a danger of which the children had not thought.
‘Creep in,’ cried Robert, opening his jacket.
And the Phoenix crept in — only just in time, for green eyes had glared, pink noses had sniffed, white whiskers had twitched, and as Robert buttoned his coat he disappeared to the waist in a wave of eager grey Persian fur.
And on the instant the good carpet slapped itself down on the floor. And it was covered with rats — three hundred and ninety-eight of them, I believe, two for each cat.
Précis
While the carpet is away fetching some cat food, the phoenix begins to worry that even such a distinguished bird as himself might look like a tasty morsel to a cat. He has just reached safety from inquiring noses when the carpet returns, bringing cat food in the form of two rats for each of nearly two hundred cats. (59 / 60 words)